Dashlane (for iPhone)

Dashlane makes it easy to create and manage strong passwords and other personal information on your iPhone, but it's not cheap.

If you're like most people, you probably have just one or two passwords you use for everything. Odds are, that password isn't very secure, either. That means a determined hacker would have little trouble taking down every site on which you recycled your weak passwords. That's why you need a password manager, and Dashlane is among the best. It makes generating and storing passwords a breeze, and much more besides. It's an excellent iPhone app and a great choice for improving your personal security.

Merge Into DashlaneYou can download Dashlane for free from the App Store, and I had no trouble installing the app onto my iPhone 6. Note that you can continue using Dashlane on your phone for free, but if you want to sync passwords among your iPhone and other devices, you'll have to shell out $39.99. Editors' Choice LastPass for iPhone, on the other hand, can do much of the same for just $12 per year. LastPass also has a new pricing scheme that lets you sync passwords among any number of devices of the same type for free. So, you could put LastPass on as many phones as you like, but you have to pay to get your passwords on tablets or PCs.

I'm really impressed with Dashlane's set up process, which immediately prompts you to download the desktop software to harvest all of the saved passwords from your PC. That's very smart. It also displays several popular websites and services like Facebook and Twitter, and asks that you fill in your login information.

Because this is a review of the iPhone app, I won't touch on all of Dashlane's extensive features. For absolutely everything that this password manager can do for you, be sure to read our review of Dashlane£2.60 at Dashlane - 1 year plan - SEE IT! for Windows.

Using DashlaneThe main screen of Dashlane on your iPhone puts your password entries within easy reach. Tap on one to edit the entry and to see Dashlane's rating of how strong your password is. The Android version of Dashlane also includes a check to see if password entries were recycled, something sorely absent from the iPhone version. The desktop version of Dashlane goes further, listing weak and recycled passwords. It would be a welcome addition to the iPhone version as well.

In addition to passwords, Dashlane can store your personal information to automatically complete Web forms. The app also stores ID cards, payment information, and other useful items that you shouldn't have to remember. If you have something important that doesn't fit into these categories, like a Wi-Fi password, you can save it as an encrypted secure note.

On iPhone, the best way to input passwords into apps is by copying and pasting from your password manager. With Dashlane, that requires opening the entry and selecting the copy command. The LastPass iPhone app pulls up a useful menu of options, including copying credentials, when you tap an entry from the main screen. Some apps support input by Dashlane directly in the app, but their numbers are few. The LastPass app has a similar issue.

Dashlane has recently been updated to take advantage of new split-screen capabilities on the iPad. On the tablet, you can put Dashlane into split-screen mode and quickly move login information between it and wherever your information is needed. If you're running iOS 9 on an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus, you can also quickly access Dashlane's search and create new entry tools using a 3D Touch press on the Dashlane homescreen. You can also search for password entries using the universal search bar. LastPass has yet to take advantage of any new iOS 9 features.

You can also input passwords directly into Safari using the share sheet options at the bottom of the screen. Once enabled, this lets you select login credentials for Dashlane to input into Safari. I like that Dashlane automatically logs you in if you have only one set of credentials for the site. And I love that Dashlane also lets you automatically fill in personal information to Web forms with its Safari extension. LastPass can only replay passwords with this tool.

The best Dashlane experience is found in the app's built-in browser. Here, any place where Dashlane can fill in your personal information or login credentials is marked with a blue impala. Dashlane adds a black impala for fields that it doesn't have information to fill in, which confused me since I had a hard time distinguishing between the two. If you fill information in one of these fields, Dashlane offers to add it to your archive. That's great.

While replaying passwords is important, you sometimes have to create a strong, unique password on the go. Dashlane includes a handy password generator for just such occasions, with options for the length of the password, and toggles for including numbers, letters, and symbols. You can also choose whether to require that the password be pronounceable.

Note that Dashlane won't let you save a generated password directly into a new entry (unless you created it from within the integrated browser) or overwrite an old entry. The LastPass app doesn't do that either, but LastPass does let you create a new entry and then generate a new password. Both services really need to rethink the workflow for this critical process.

Sharing passwords is, generally, a very bad idea. But if you have a joint checking account, for example, you have a good reason to give someone access to a password. Dashlane lets you share password entries with other people right from the phone, and it lets you decide whether recipients can edit password entries themselves. LastPass goes further, logging in the recipient without revealing the password in the process.

Perhaps Dashlane's most unusual feature is the ability to bequeath some or all of your passwords and stored personal information to someone else. Simply nominate the individual through the app, and select the waiting period you think appropriate. If the person files a claim with Dashlane and you do not object by the time the waiting period ends (presumably, because you have died) the company will hand over your records.

Just having secure passwords doesn't mean that you're always going to be safe. When something goes wrong, you need to quickly change your password. With Dashlane on your iPhone, you can change your password for certain websites and services with just a tap of the Password Changer. It's a great feature, but I couldn't get it to work on popular sites like Twitter and Facebook. LastPass has this feature, but not in its mobile apps.

Dash OffPeople are bad at passwords, and passwords aren't great for security to begin with. That's why you need to make the best of a bad situation and get a password manager. If you decide to go with Dashlane, you won't be disappointed. It has excellent tools for creating and replaying passwords. It makes your personal information and login credentials easily available in Safari, and I especially like how it offers to store new credentials from its built-in browser.

Dashlane is an impressive piece of software on the iPhone, but its high price and a few minor complaints hold it back from our top recommendation. The more affordable LastPass continues its reign as our Editors' Choice for iPhone password managers.